Is the msvcr71.dll present in Windows 2012 and higher versions by default?

Giving some background on the problem. We have the windows zip utility packaged along with our product. This zip utility is called from one of our product scripts and is used to package some log files. One of our customers have raised an issue that when they run our script, which invokes zip.exe, they get this pop up--"The program can't start because MSVCR71.dll is missing from your computer". I examined the zip.exe in dependency walker tool, and sure enough, I could see the dependency to msvcr71.dll. The customer told that they can overcome this by manually placing the MSVCR71.dll file in the path C:\Windows\SysWOW64 or installing Windows 7 redists.

However, I created a new Windows 2012 VM, did-not install any additional software, and I could see msvcr71.dll in the path C:\Windows\SysWOW64 and zip.exe runs successfully without complaining about missing dll. So wanted to check if msvcr71.dll is available by default or not?

Solution 1:

No, it is not part of the Windows distribution. If your application requires the msvcr71.dll file from .NET Framework 1.1, the installer should install it in the application's program files directory, and not in the Windows system32 or SYSWOW64 directory.

Source:

Redistribution of the shared C runtime component in Visual C++

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/326922/redistribution-of-the-shared-c-runtime-component-in-visual-c